USA Science and Engineering Festival

Like last year, The National Science Foundation (NSF) selected research from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University's (NYU-Poly) Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. The 16 projects on display included robotic fish, motion-controlled educational games, LEGO-based machines operated by sensors, a mobile application that directs robots via voice commands and other interactive exhibits.

The square-wheeled bicycles were a big hit. As NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering alumni and their families discovered during a visit to New York City’s Museum of Mathematics on June 21, square wheels can roll smoothly if they travel over inverted catenaries--evenly spaced bumps of just the right shape. The bikes, however, were just one of the many attractions the School of Engineering group enjoyed.